Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Waving Lace Socks

Pattern: Waving Lace Socks from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Lakeview
Needle: SB size 2
Cast on: August 7, 2007

I was checking off my summer queue, and pulled out my 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces when I noticed that my lovely 10 month Chocolate lab puppy had oh so lovingly chewed on one end. "This is going to make winding it into a ball so much easier." Needing a challenge, I started. Ten minutes later, I restarted. Fifteen minutes after that, I threw the whole damned thing back in my yarn bag (yes, I am a new knitter; all my yarn fits in a small little bag, and a drawer, and a shelf, okay, just the new stuff fits in the bag, liar mouth). Off to check the intenet. And onto ebay. There has to be a yarn ball winder on there somewhere. I bid on what looks like a nice ball winder, I'll have to get one of my boys to hold the skeins for me. I bid on a lovely birch swift, but lost the bid by $3. One of the many shopping disadvantages to living in Alaska, all my internet yarn comes in skeins and I would never in a million years take them to the LYS to use there baller. That would just be cruel. Don't get me wrong, I love the LYS, but sometimes a girl just needs a little variety.

Short story... long. I finally balled up my skein, after I realized that Ebay wasn't going to instantly plasma-tranfer my baller to me through my laptop, only to realize that the intended pattern from Knits summer 2007 Spiral Boot socks was far to small (11" to my 14" calf). Bummed, I stole the opportunity to browse my Favorite Socks book to painstakingly narrow my pattern choice to one. The final decision came down to the fact that the Waving Lace sock pattern was knit up in Lorna's Lace supersock. I love it when decisions are made for me!

(although I did go back online and order another lovely sock yarn through Loopy Ewe. I might go back again and order the San Diego. J.Knits needs and Alaska sock. Maybe we should get an Alaska colition together and recommend a Northern Lights colorway that actually has the colors of the northern lights?

This is the first pattern I have followed where the pattern is printed on the grid. It is difficult to get used to, but only at first. Once I got into the swing of things, it has been remarkably easy to follow. Again with my guilty liar mouth confessions: This is not the first cast on. The first cast on was two days ago. I grabbed the needles and started to knit the fifth row yesterday and inadvertantly started knitting in the wrong direction. I was knitting to the left on the inside. Frogged, cast BACK on and here is the scalloped edge. So lovely! So happy!

The only drawback I see to this sock is the color. It is absolutely gorgeous, I wish I would have started knitting it earlier. It is a total summer color, but the summer is over here. Today is beautiful, but it is starting to get cooler at night, darker at night, and by the time I get these done, the leaves will have fallen (they are turning yellow as I type), and summer will be long gone. And a funny note, the color is Lakeview. While Lakeview might conjure up thoughts of prestine beauty and quiet serenity, the only thought conjured up here is the local trailer park: Lakeview Terrace. Not that trailer parks are bad things, no. They are a necessity for affordable living for us working class. But this one is really bad, truck trailer, condemned trailers, semi-trailers converted into living space. Kinda sad, and now... they are being knit onto my feet.

Well, wish me luck in my ball bid, may the Ebay Gods be generous tonight...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I felt like I had really made it in the knitting world when I finally got my ball winder and swift - they have been worth every penny!!
Waving Lace is my favorite pattern in the book! I think they will be beautiful in "Lakeview". I just looked through my LL because I thought I had the same color, but mine is "Tahoe" (also lakey like colors).
Is the Fireweed at the top yet??

AfternoonMoon said...

Yes, the fireweed is topping off. I have some 1st season flowers that are just starting to bloom, which gives me falses hopes. The valley on Jones road was 34F this morning at 5am. I have a friend who was awake at this hour to check because a lovely momma moose brought her fold into the doglot to eat the fireweed down to the ground.